CED Supporting The CAMFED garden

Post date: 31 Jan, 2019
CAMFEDAs part of their 25th anniversary celebrationsCAMFEDwill be revealing their first everRHS Chelseashow garden,The CAMFED Garden- ‘Giving Girls in Africa a Space to Grow’. With this garden they hope to draw attention to the urgent need to empower and educate young women in some of the world’s poorest communities, and their campaign to grow 1,000 women-led agricultural businesses across Africa. “We are delighted to bring the surroundings of rural Zimbabwe to one of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show’s prestigious show gardens. This innovative garden design illustrates how we support girls in the classroom and beyond, to reach their full potential.” - Lucy Lake, CEOTHE GARDENBringing rural Zimbabwe to London, the garden will feature bright colours and bold plants, presenting crops and flowers common to Zimbabwe. The garden will be beautiful, but also productive, many of the plants in the garden will be edible, representing the importance horticulture has in Zimbabwe as a source of food and income. The garden will also feature an outdoor learning space and will showcase biofortified crops. After the show, the garden will live on atThe Eden Projectin Cornwall, allowing more people learn from the garden and enjoy it’s beauty. The Eden Project, is an educational charity, ‘connecting us with each other and the living world, exploring how we can work towards a better future.’The garden has been designed byJilayne Rickardswho travelled to Zimbabwe and met with a CAMFED partner community for inspiration. Her design is influenced by the people she met there and the places she visited, for instance the outdoor classroom she has incorporated into her design is based on a school she visited whilst there. The hard landscaping in the design reflects the landscapes she experienced on her trip, including the iconic red soil and the incredible Balancing Rocks of Zimbabwe.Balancing RocksThese are the elements of the garden Jilayne and contractorConway Landscapesneeded support with. Cormac Conway, Director of the award winning garden construction company and self confessed show garden addict recommended Jilayne get in touch with CED having worked with us before. After discussing her design and her requirements with MDGiles Heap, she and Cormac were invited to take a trip up to Scotland to view the extensive stock ofbouldersandrockeryheld in Castlecary Depot’s six acre yardSTONE SELECTIONJilayne and Cormac made the trip to Scotland at the start of the year and were introduced to Depot ManagerMark Kennyand the Castlecary team. Jilayne states, ‘To ensure authenticity of the Zimbabwean theme that runs through the CAMFED RHS Chelsea garden, I absolutely had to see the rocks before including them – they must be the right colour and size which can’t be done from photos, so a visit to CED Castlecary was essential.’Most of their day was spent selecting boulders while battling the cold Scottish winds. Jilayne recalls, ‘Once I haddecided which to use, we did a quick mock up on site to check that the sizes would work well together.Thiswill save loads of valuable time when we construct the garden and was great fun too – absolute designer classic of left a bit, right a bit.’ After much maneuvering by Yard ForemanPat Hughesin the forklift and by our hiab driver Jim Wilson with the grab, the boulders were eventually positioned in a way that Jilayne and Cormac were pleased with.Happy with their chosen boulders they had one more stop before catching their flight home, and Mark Kenny took them to a local site which had some red sandstone stock. Jilayne was relieved to find the rocks were the perfect size and colour and around 4 tonne was selected for the garden: ‘The stone will be cleaned off to remove moss and reveal their beautiful colours.I am so excited to be using them as afocal structure in the garden that gives a sense of place and directly relates to the Zimbabwean landscape.’CED are delighted to be supporting the CAMFED garden by donating all the stones selected by Jilayne and Cormac. We are very much looking forward to RHS Chelsea and seeing the garden in all it’s glory and we wishJilayne RickardsandConway Landscapesthe very best of luck.We also wishCAMFEDall the best in their campaign.